There are over 82,000 newspapers in India with a daily circulation of over 100 million copies. In the next five years, India will have 70 news channels. The industry is projected to grow at 11.8 per cent in 2013 to reach Rs 917 billion (US$ 14.79 billion).

Skills needed for Media

Good language skills: Be it print or television, every journalist needs to be good at the language in which he/she wishes to make a career in. You need grammatically correct English or Hindi since you will have to write your own reports.

Nose for news: You should have a flair for eliciting information from people and resources. You must smell news by being alert and always on your toes.

Research skills: You must be someone who can research for hours at end either in a library or over the Internet. These skills are required for doing your homework before going on a field story.

Presentation Skills: You must be someone who is comfortable speaking before camera. You must have great diction and pronunciation. Even print media journalists need this since they have to meet and interview politicians and celebrities. If you opt to become a Public Relations officer in a private company, these skills will be handy.

Course and Training

Today there are many courses available in Journalism and Mass Communication both at the graduate and undergraduate level. The Best Institute in India is Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi which is an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Like IIMC, many other institutes conduct their own entrance exams that test general knowledge, current affairs, translation and vocabulary. There are specializations available such as radio/television journalism, photo journalism, public relations, mass communication, media management etc.

List of Institutes for undergrad and post-grad courses in Journalism and Mass Communication

Career Opportunities in Media

Following are the various job profiles/career opportunities offered to graduates in mass communication/journalism:

Reporter/Journalist: You can work as a reporter or a journalist for newspapers and news channels. Today, there are many lifestyle and travel channels also that need reporters and journalists to cover features for them.

TV Correspondent/Special Correspondent: You can also work from the city where you live in and become a beat reporter or a correspondent for television channels. You can work either specifically for one channel or on freelance basis.

Radio Jockey: Mass Communication graduates can become a Radio Jockey for radio channels too.

News editor: If you are good at language and editing skills, you can start as sub-editor in a newspaper/channel making your way up to a news editor or executive editor.

Video Jockey: Every music, reality or entertainment channel needs VJs. A mass communication graduate is ideal for this position if he/she has exceptional presentation skills and a photogenic face.

Screenwriter: You can become a screenplay writer in television serials and films by studying mass communication. You need exemplary writing and imagination skills for this post.

Production Assistant: If you have specifically studied Audio-Visual media and you have a great understanding of the production, you can become a production assistant too.

Sound Engineer: Sound engineers are concerned with the recording, manipulation, mixing and reproduction of sound.

Art Director: An art director designs the sets of a television serial, movie or reality shows. You will need a specialization for this or a separate course in design apart from mass communication.

Public Relations Officer: He/she is responsible for maintaining a great public image of a company. You need to be a people’s person and should have great poise to fit in.

Photo journalist/photographer: You need a great eye for aesthetics and a technical course in photography to become a photo journalist or a fashion or wildlife photographer.

Remuneration

The pass-outs of the top-notch institutes like IIMC, MCRC Jamia, Symbiosis College etc get the best pay packets in the industry. Salaries in the media industry almost entirely depend upon your experience and skill sets. Starting salary for a mass communication professional could be between Rs 12,000 and 25,000. After five years of work experience a professional can expect a higher salary in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000 per month.

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